GLADYS MITCHELL:
WHY PEOPLE SHOULD READ HER DETECTIVE STORIES

Part I

by Nicholas Fuller

So far, I have described some of the reasons why Gladys Mitchell is my favourite writer: the gleeful gusto of her writing; her keen sense of humour; her imagination; and the wonderful Mrs. Bradley, the most endlessly fascinating detective in fiction. More, I have (I hope) whetted the reader's appetite for Mitchell, and left him loudly clamouring to buy and try one.

This, however, is where we strike a bit of a snag. At the moment, very few Mitchells are currently in print. Because she never achieved the fame of Sayers or Christie, and less than a third of her books were published in America , she has been to some degree forgotten. (I will not mention the ‘adaptations' with Diana Rigg as Mrs Bradley, which were a complete travesty.) In the UK , only two books (but very good ones) are available: The Rising of the Moon and – O joy! – Brazen Tongue (ever since its publication in 1940, almost impossible to find, until Minnow Press reprinted it last year; word has it that the same company intends to republish most of Mitchell's books, continuing with The Devil at Saxon Wall ). In America , Rue Morgue Press has reprinted Death at the Opera and When Last I Died . All of these are undeniably great Mitchells, but these are only four out of some sixty-six. What about the rest?

Well, several were reprinted in the 1980s, either by Hogarth ( Speedy Death, The Saltmarsh Murders, When Last I Died, Laurels are Poison and The Rising of the Moon ) or Sphere ( The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop, Opera, St Peter's Finger, Sunset over Soho, The Devil's Elbow and Lament for Leto ). Penguin Books also published many in the old greenback format, starting in 1939 with Opera (with Rising, probably the most reprinted of her books) and The Devil at Saxon Wall , and later adding Speedy Death, Butcher's Shop, The Longer Bodies, Come Away, Death, Laurels are Poison, Tom Brown's Body, Faintley Speaking, Watson's Choice, 12 Horses and the Hangman's Noose, The 23 rd Man and Spotted Hemlock . These are relatively easy to come by.

The rest of them, however, are not. After they had been published (since 1936, by Michael Joseph), most of them were not reprinted in paperback form. Libraries may still have a few, and it is always worth checking what is available through inter-library loan. To my delight, I was able to get the rare-as-hen's-teeth Stephen Hockaby novel Seven Stars and Orion through ILL from the State Library of NSW. Unless you can get books from the British Library, the Bodleian or the Library of Congress, however, there will still be several gaps in what you can get – and those are generally the most tantalising ones.

What about buying them? Well, the collectors' market being what it is, first editions are not cheap. Although I managed to get Merlin's Furlong (in jacket) for only $6.00 US, copies of that book sell on ABE for $360 US , and a copy of The Echoing Strangers , published only the year before, will set you back $697.98 US. Until the reader has fallen under Mitchell's spell, it is unlikely that he will be prepared to spend that much – unless the book is very good indeed (and even then will think thrice). For that reason, I shall separate the wheat from the chaff and the chaff from the wheat; in other words, briefly list the best of Mitchell and the worst.

Let us get the bad ones out of the way first. There is only one dud in the first thirty years of Mitchell's writing career: Hangman's Curfew (1941), in which Mrs. Bradley and her friends rush around Scotland trying to solve an increasingly impenetrable imbroglio, generally by doing unfathomable things to the Border ballads and blowing up cottages. This has been out of print since the 1940s, and the reader is unlikely to come across it. (Note to self: Check ABE and Ebay first thing tomorrow!) Many of the 1960s books are also disappointing, particularly Say it with Flowers (a strange, incoherent book) and Adders on the Heath (unquestionably her worst – no characterisation, less detection, and spies who use ponies' tails to send messages – obviously not detailed ones). Also avoid Winking at the Brim , which has a good setting (an expedition to find the Loch Ness Monster, which eats the murderer) but a disappointing plot.

Onto the Dozen (and, as Laura would say, Then Some!) Best Mitchells.

•  The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop (1929). How to start your career with a bang! ( Speedy Death , which came first, is rather awkward – lots of good ideas, but very melodramatic.) An unusual murder (squire dismembered and turned into chops and cutlets); superb detection by Mrs Bradley (lots of misleading clues in the style of Christie); and one of those FOOLED YOU! solutions which are always so satisfying.

•  The Saltmarsh Murders (1932). A comic novel in the line of TF Powys's Mr. Weston's Good Wine and Stella Gibbon's Cold Comfort Farm , set in a small village populated with eccentrics who represent different aspects of human nature. Mrs. Bradley at her most vital; amusing Wodehousian narration; a complicated plot; and a surprising murderer. Also shows that Mitchell was unquestionably a liberal and progressive.

•  Death at the Opera (1934). Interesting setting (progressive co-educational school's performance of The Mikado , during which the Arithmetic Mistress supposed to play Katisha is drowned). Superb characterisation (both of the teachers, who are obviously drawn from life, and of a ‘Brides-in-the-Bath' Smith-type killer). Excellent detection by a very human Mrs. Bradley (the solution is reached from two different angles, the psychological and the material), and a completely surprising solution (least-likely murderer, and a motive which is both deliberately ludicrous and yet wholly in keeping with the murderer's psychology).

•  The Devil at Saxon Wall (1935). Mitchell's first book to use folklore and the supernatural, and unquestionably her best use of this theme. Set in an obscure village teeming with witchcraft and pagan survivals, and where the squire is demoniacally possessed. An imaginative and atmospheric tour de force. When it was published, Torquemada wrote in The Observer : “I would not wish my dearest foe to miss The Devil at Saxon Wall ; a new Gladys Mitchell is as much an event as a new Dorothy L Sayers.”

•  Come Away, Death (1937). Discussed in detail above. READ IT!

•  St Peter's Finger (1938). Inside look at life in a convent; superb portrayal of troubled adolescents and nuns, and one of the most believable killers in fiction; more ‘proper' detection than normal; and major religious themes. Understandably PD James's favourite.

•  Brazen Tongue (1940). “A horrible book”, according to Mitchell, but really one of her best. Unforgettable picture of a small town at the start of WWII; really intriguing idea behind the crimes; and superb misdirection.

•  When Last I Died (1941). One of her most popular books, with good reason. Opens with Mrs. Bradley finding the diary of Bella Foxley, who was tried for murder, having apparently helped her aunt to choke to death on grated carrot and pushed her cousin out of the window of a haunted house. Perhaps the first detective story to use the historiographical method of detection (think Christie's Five Little Pigs , Tey's Daughter of Time , Dexter's Wench is Dead ).

•  The Rising of the Moon (1945). Her best book, according to Philip Larkin and Edmund Crispin, and possibly her best known. Mrs. Bradley plays second fiddle (for once) to a couple of boys, one of whom tells the story of their attempts to discover a small town ‘Ripper'. More autobiographical detail than normal – the town is based on Brentford, where Mitchell grew up.

•  Death and the Maiden (1947). The one with the naiad in Winchester . Only four suspects, but one of Mitchell's most complex and ingenious plots. Murderer suspected from early on, so the main problem is why .

•  Tom Brown's Body (1949). Combines two of Mitchell's interests – schools and witchcraft – to great effect. Splendid characterisation of boys and teachers, not to mention Mrs. Bradley's encounters with the local witch.

•  The Echoing Strangers (1952). Has Sir Adrian Caux, the homicidal, cricket-cheating, squire, and his very peculiar grandsons. Beautifully plotted, and satisfying in every way.

•  The 23 rd Man (1957). Mitchell thought this one of her best. Set in the Canaries, so plenty of local colour and suspicious ex-pats.

•  Dance to Your Daddy (1969). Very late, but very good. A skit on the Gothic melodrama, complete with wicked guardian and persecuted maiden – but things are not what they seem. More action, too: Dame Beatrice is shot at through a squint.

•  The Greenstone Griffins (1983). The last book published in Mitchell's lifetime, and a very fitting end to her career: revisits a number of key themes in Mitchell's work; set in the 1920s, with Mrs. Bradley rather than Dame Beatrice; and, like Rising , is largely autobiographical – main character, a teacher (female), who is haunted by the GG of the title (a pair of candlesticks), is obviously GM herself. This really should have been published last, rather than the three posthumous ones which followed.

OK, that's a crocodile's dozen – but what can one do when there's so much good stuff to choose from? Obvious answer: go out and read them. NOW!